DEATH

                   Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

How do we deal with the issue of death? Can man know and understand these things?

6 Now the time has come for me to die. My life is like a drink offering being poured out on the altar. 7 I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful. 8 So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. He judges fairly, and on the day of judgment he will give a crown to me and to everyone else who wants him to appear with power.1

Those are often removed that could be worst spared; the fruitful trees are cut down by death and the barren left still to cumber the ground. Merciful men are often taken away by the hands of men's malice. Many good works they have done, and for some of them they are stoned.

1The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. 2He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. 2

The careless world slighting these providences, and disregarding them: No man lays it to heart, none considers it. There are very few that lament it as a public loss, very few that take notice of it as a public warning. The death of good men is a thing to be laid to heart and considered more than common deaths. Serious enquiries ought to be made, wherefore God contends with us, what good lessons are to be learned by such providences, what we may do to help to make up the breach and to fill up the room of those that are removed. God is justly displeased when such events are not laid to heart, when the voice of the rod is not heard nor the intentions of it answered, much more when it is rejoiced in, as the slaying of the witnesses is, Rev. 11:10. Some of God's choicest blessings to mankind, being thus easily parted with, are really undervalued; and it is an evidence of very great incogitancy. Little children, when they are little, least lament the death of their parents, because they know not what a loss it is to them.

: 6Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. 7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The happiness of the righteous in their removal. They are taken away from the evil to come, then when it is just coming. In compassion to them, that they may not see the evil (2 Ki. 22:20), nor share in it, nor be in temptation by it. When the deluge is coming they are called into the ark, and have a hiding-place and rest in heaven when there was none for them under heaven. In wrath to the world, to punish them for all the injuries they have done to the righteous and merciful ones; those are taken away that stood in the gap to turn away the judgments of God, and then what can be expected but a deluge of them? It is a sign that God intends war when he calls home his ambassadors.

21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

They go to be easy out of the reach of that evil. The righteous man, who while he lived walked in his uprightness, when he dies enters into peace and rests in his bed. Death is gain, and rest, and bliss, to those only who walked in their uprightness, and who, when they die, can appeal to God concerning it, as Hezekiah (2 Ki. 20:3). Now, Lord, remember it. Those that practised uprightness, and persevered in it to the end, shall find it well with them when they die. Their souls then enter into peace, into the world of peace, where peace is in perfection and where there is no trouble. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Their bodies rest in their beds. The grave is a bed of rest to all the Lord's people; there they rest from all their labours, Rev. 14:13. And the more weary they were the more welcome will that rest be to them, Job 3:17. This bed is made in the darkness, but that makes it the more quiet; it is a bed out of which they, with the new eternal body, shall rise refreshed in the morning of the resurrection.

1For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

21Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast (evil) that goeth downward to the earth?

The ones closest to Jesus certainly did not seem to be in any way wary of death. By their own words it seemed they knew how fortunate they were to put away the flesh.

. 13Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 14Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 15Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. 373

Was the worthiness to escape all those things which must come on the earth the timing of our birth and death as some have suggested? Knowing the time of the end is at hand we must look forward to redemption of some sort whether by death or whatever means. For us who see all the signs of the end transpiring before our face we know there is nothing now to hang onto except the promises of God. The world as most of us once knew it is over. The world at this moment is being prepared to the Antichrist. Everything is just about in place. The peace treaty now going on in Israel when signed will start the clock on the last 7 years of history.
Just glancing at the scriptures I see all the things that Jesus said must happen are mostly fulfilled. The remnant of the Jews are in Israel. Jerusalem is in the hands of the Jews fulfilling 'the times of the gentiles'. The seas and the waves roaring 7Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 8Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together 9Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. fulfilled in El Nino. Even Y2k will be fulfilled in scripture unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. 8Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions The last of the saints will be sealed in the year 2000 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. David was the king of the Israelites for 33 years plus 7 additional year in Jerusalem. From the time Jerusalem was taken by the Jews in 1967 plus 33 years equals the year 2000. David ruled 7 years in Jerusalem. The final 7 years or 70th week of Daniel will start soon. When the kings of the earth meet with the Antichrist to receive their power God will set up his kingdom. 44And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. So we see the time is near. Strange things are going on all over. Who will be able to know if people are not taken out of the way through any means. Who will know if the ones taken aren't one of the 144,000 virgins who stand with Jesus? 1And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 2And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 3And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 4These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.